The embezzlement and breach of trust case against former OURHOME Vice Chairman Koo Bon-sung has been reviewed by the Supreme Court. Previously, Koo was sentenced to three years in prison with a four-year suspended sentence in the second trial for embezzling hundreds of millions of won in corporate funds.
According to the legal community on the 31st, Koo's defense submitted a petition for appeal to the Criminal Division 1 of the Seoul High Court (Director General Yoon Jeong-sik) on the 29th.
Former Vice Chairman Koo was indicted without detention in September last year on charges of using gift certificates purchased with company funds for personal purposes from July 2017, during his tenure as CEO, until 2021, and for receiving performance bonuses worth about 2 billion won despite management difficulties. Koo is also facing allegations of paying the property tax and comprehensive real estate tax on land in Hannam-dong, Yongsan District, Seoul, with company funds and using company money to purchase a golf club membership in his own name.
On the 22nd, former Vice Chairman Koo was sentenced to three years in prison with a four-year suspended sentence in the appeals trial under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes for embezzlement and breach of trust. In the first trial, he received a sentence of two years in prison with a three-year suspended sentence.
The first trial court acknowledged only the charge of Koo purchasing gift certificates with company funds as guilty. However, the second trial court found Koo guilty of the additional allegations that he improperly received management performance bonuses, causing damage to the company, and that he embezzled company funds by purchasing a golf club membership in his own name.